The day Mom came into town we decided to put Alaina up in pin curls.
Laina actually let us do it without much fuss, but when we took her hair down, it looked exactly the same way it does with a little hair gel.


We let mom have one break from the sewing machine and took her out to ice-cream. She was so happy to see the sky that she was impossible to get back into the house. From then on, she was only allowed to look out of the windows. ;)
































The kids had a great time at the church Easter egg hunt. They sat down to look at their loot, and before we knew it, Ethan had chocolate smeared from one side of his face to the other and an empty basket. Gotta love those Easter sugar highs. On Easter Sunday we let the kids color their own eggs. Actually, I let Mom do all the work with the kids while I took pictures. We made a great team.

Lora Bear Michelle Piggle-Poo Scribner (aka Bo Da Dee Bear, Lolo) got hitched. It's true. I could hardly believe it myself. The problem is, anytime I ever look at this girl my eyes disconnect from my brain and all I see is a little girl. Images likes these distract me from the grown up conversation she is having about college, mission, dating etc.

In fact, when she told me she was engaged, I had a total 'Father of the Bride' moment with the image of this little girl saying, "I met a boy, we fell in love and I'm getting maaarrrriiieeddd!"

A couple of days before the wedding, I spent the morning with Lolo and Marks-&-Spencers at the beach with some of his family. All of a sudden I looked over at her and saw this grown up beautiful women. It was incredible...she was poised and engaging and just when this new vision started to settle in she jumped on a boogie board and barrelled down a sand dune with her hunk-o-burin'-love. It wasn't the brightest idea to start with and became increasing silly as they crashed and burned 3 quarters of the way down. In a flash of sand and dirt, Lolo managed to turn back into a little girl.

In the flurry of the next few days our sweet little sister had a few bridzilla moments, a few emotional moments and a couple fleeting moments of panic. But, then Saturday came, and there she was. Simply gorgeous. She was graceful and calm. And she owned the room. Every bride is the center of attention on her wedding day, but not all brides make everyone around her feel equally important. Little kids and old folk were given the same loving attention. I should have known it all along...I've seen her growing up. But I don't think I've actually seen her as a grown up until now.

Oh...and that Mark is okay, too.

Well, he doesn't stink or nuthin'.

All wedding photos were taken by Kari since my camera was on the fritz and she took such great pictures. A women of many talents...she also made the cake!

There I was, a ninth grader. The year was 1989 and leggings were in. So were stripped shirts, rainbow neon and off-set ponytails. I detested it all. I had spent the last year perfecting my get-away-from-me/I-don't-care glare. Def Leppard, Metalalica, Bon Jovi and Scorpions with a healthy dash of Cars (thanks to Scott) and Talking Heads (thanks to Craig) were my main musical repertoire. I had studiously turned my entire wardrobe black and decided that black eyeliner was the only makeup worth wearing. Mom had spent the entire year trying to get me to wear pink. Christmas was a pink sweater dress that was collecting dust in the closet...although I secretly thought I looked pretty good in it. The only cool person I knew who looked good in pink was Scotty. Pink neon, of course. And he only pulled it off because, well, he could pull anything off.

The year is now 2007. Leggings are in (didn't learn the first time around, did we ladies?) Over sized stripped shirts in neon sit haphazardly on nearly every mannequin in the mall. And I just spent the last 3 days studiously creating a masterpiece bedroom that would have made my 9th grade self jump off a cliff. Pink. Pink walls. Pink flowers. Light greens and yellows. Granted, it isn't my room. It is Alaina's. But It looks as thought a pink flamingo threw-up in that room. Not just pink, mind you. But flowers. Lots of flowers in pastels. Lots of glitter. Lots of sparkly thingies. And everytime I look at it a huge grin spreads across my face. Ahhh...what do 9th graders know anyways?

Mom has spent the last week with us and I immediately forced her to pull out the sewing machine and slave away the entire time. She made some curtains in the office/spare room. She made that awesome canopy matching curtain. I think she started to rethink the whole idea of coming to visit. The pink overload was completely my idea. Halfway through the painting I started having serious doubts about my color choice. I finished at 3 p.m. and even as I washed off the brushes I wasn't sure what I thought. After a good long sleep, though, everything looked perfect.